Report Structure

For 2020-2021, Camp Fire has prepared a “report within a report,” separately addressing the activities and achievements of CFSRP and EEAP. This structure enables readers to pull out a comprehensive summary of CFSRP or EEAP alone, as well as to consider them together.

CFSRP

This report describes the results of social-emotional, developmental, and literacy assessments for children attending CFSRP centers in 2020-2021. It considers how Camp Fire’s implementation of the CFSRP responded to ongoing pandemic challenges. It captures child development center and classroom quality measures. It compares beginning- to end-of-year developmental and literacy gains among students attending CFSRP and students in other FWISD classrooms. Notably, Camp Fire was able to collect beginning and end of year assessment data for students, teachers, and classrooms, after pausing assessment in the spring of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The CFSRP report was designed to address five central evaluation questions. To what extend did the CFSRP:

1. Implement professional development, stipend allocation, and mentorship activities as intended?

2. Improve the percentage of children demonstrating age-appropriate developmental, early literacy, and social-emotional skills during the 2020-2021 program year?

3. Impact children’s growth in developmental, early literacy, and social-emotional skills during the 2020-2021 program year?

4. Enhance the quality of teaching, classroom management, and centers’ family engagement practices during the 2020-2021 program year?

5. Impact CFSRP children’s school readiness as they enter prekindergarten and kindergarten?

EEAP

This year’s report also addresses the implementation and preliminary outcomes of EEAP’s inaugural year. EEAP is an innovative solution to intractable issues facing the early childhood profession: difficulty for educators to obtain a living wage, professional support, and recognition; and elevated turnover among centerbased staff. Ultimately, these issues affect educators and students alike; strengthening the early education workforce has potential to improve educational quality and professional support, elevating child outcomes over the long run. EEAP is implemented with the support of the Texas Workforce Commission and is certified by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is Texas’ first early education apprenticeship program, developed in partnership between Camp Fire First Texas, Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, Tarrant County College, Tarleton State University, and TEACH Early Childhood Texas.

In 2020-2021, Camp Fire supported the training and education of 23 apprentices in an effort to build a career pathway and labor pipeline supporting highquality early childhood education for children as well as adequate professional, educational, and wage support for educators. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the program’s first year was conducted virtually, expanding the program’s reach beyond Tarrant County. All apprentices in the initial cohort were eligible for wage increases as they reached program milestones. They had the opportunity to leave the program with up to 33 hours of college credit. The initial year provided an opportunity for initial lessons learned, informing the future direction, implementation, and evaluation of EEAP.

This report was designed to address three central evaluation questions:

1. What are the characteristics and motivations of apprentices in the program?

2. What barriers or supports affected participation in the apprenticeship program?

3. To what extent have apprentices obtained wage and credentialing growth so far?